Wee proposes govt to reintroduce GST to generate country's source of income

SHAH ALAM - The government should reintroduce the goods and services tax (GST) in Budget 2024, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

The MCA president made three recommendations and a reference for the government to ensure the country’s economic growth continued to prosper.

He said firstly, the government needed to bring back GST.

“I have repeated many times about GST. We cannot always talk about expenditures in the Budget, but there is no source of income. Reintroduce GST.

“I have also said that in GST we can have five things, which are zero-rated, exemption list, enable cash handouts, reducing the rate from six per cent to four per cent and we can also improve the mechanism to return the money to the people,” he said in a video posted on his Facebook page, yesterday.

The Ayer Hitam MP also called for the government to reduce the imbalance cost pass-through (ICPT) rate for those in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) who were forced to bear higher expenses, higher costs and maternity leave.

He said the government should think like Singapore and help the employers as it would be impossible for them to bear all the expenses themselves.

He added that the government should simplify the process of hiring foreign workers especially for the 3D sector (dirty, dangerous, difficult).

The third suggestion, he said was to increase the individual tax exemption of RM9,000 to RM12,000.

This, he said was due to the inflation rate.

“Give some room for the M40 and T20 groups to breathe. If there is no disposable income (to spend), no extra income, they will not be able to spend and businesses cannot run.

“Those from the M40 and T20 groups are not ATMs (automated teller machine). We need to see that if these groups were able to spend a little bit more, what is the effect? There will be a multiplier effect.

“This is when a nasi lemak seller earns an additional RM100. They can buy cucumbers, anchovies as well as other supplies. The RM100 can multiply to RM1,000 and this is what we want to see in terms of economic impact to all levels of society,” Wee said.

He also urged the government to refer back to the New Economic Model for Malaysia published in 2010 where there were strategic and reform initiatives with clear strategic policy direction.

He said even though the book was published 13 years ago, there was a lot to learn from the model.

“I pray for Malaysia to be prosperous and strong in terms of economic growth and unlike the growth of only 2.9 per cent recorded in the second quarter," he said.